Jamie LendinoCallWave Vtxt (beta)CallWave Vtxt is a good voice-to-text message solution, particularly if you have an older mobile phone. But be prepared to do some creative interpretation to comprehend some of the transcribed messages you'll get.

CallWave Vtxt is a good voice-to-text message solution, particularly if you have an older mobile phone. But be prepared to do some creative interpretation to comprehend some of the transcribed messages you'll get.

Visual voice mail, which delivers voice messages to your phone, alleviating the need to call in to hear them, is suddenly on the wireless industry's radar. SimulScribe, one of the first out of the gate, is a fine visual voice-mail application, particularly when paired with SimulSays, sold by the same company, on a supported smartphone. And Apple's iPhone offers similar functionality.

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But now, through CallWave Vtxt, you can get your voice-mail messages transcribed to text from any phone (not just a high-end device) that supports text messages. The service transcribes voice-mail messages into SMS messages that are delivered to your phone. It squeezes each message under the 160-character SMS limit using its GIST (General Information on the Subject and Timing) technology to give you the gist rather than the entire text. This sounds okay in theory, but I wondered if all that GIST hype was masking less-than-stellar voice-to-text translation. My tests determined that this was indeed the case.

To get the service, you need to visit CallWave's Web site and sign up for the free CallWave Visual Voicemail. The setup process is simple: Clear drop-down menus walk you through the steps that apply for your particular carrier and cell phone.

The app sends audio copies of your cell-phone voice mail to your e-mail inbox, where you can play messages, respond via e-mail or text, and archive or delete messages. CallWave also maintains a contact list in your account based on incoming voice-mail messages.

In addition, CallWave Visual Voicemail sends you a text notification whenever you have a new message. Actually, merely by switching to CallWave, you lose your cell phone's existing "New Voicemail" icon, so the text notifications are the only way for you to know that there's a message waiting.

I was more impressed with Visual Voicemail than with the text delivery from the new Vtxt beta, which had accuracy issues. Often Vtxt spit out the exact opposite of what a caller was saying. For example, "No need to call me back" became "You need to call me back" when translated to text. Other messages had more grammatical issues than Yoda on a bender. More often than not, I was treated to a collection of key words the caller had used, without any connective words to make them into a sentence. I guess you could say I was able to extract the gist.

But that wasn't always the case. For example, I left myself a message with two separate ideasone about a folder I had sent, and another about whether or not "we were still on for this Saturday." Vtxt delivered the first part in the SMS text message but completely dropped the second part, although I received the whole message in e-mail.

Vtxt adds a warning to your voice-mail greeting message, advising callers to speak slowly. You'll have to decide if it's worth having your callers put up with that. (To be fair, SimulScribe's service issues a similar caution.) On the plus side, when callers obey the warning, Vtxt's accuracy is improved considerably, but SimulScribe still did a bit better with faster talkers.

Visual Voicemail is free and definitely worth a try. Vtxt is currently in beta and free, and pricing hasn't been announced yet. Price alone could give it an advantage, since SimulScribe starts at $10 a month and goes up if you receive more than 40 messages in any given month.

Regardless, Vtxt seems to need some more work before it's ready for release. I understand the GIST approach, since it saves data and text fees and condenses overly long messages. But Vtxt's accuracy isn't as good as SimulScribe's, at least not in the beta version I tested. Still, if you're looking to try out voice to text for its undeniable speed advantages, CallWave Vtxt works with just about any cell phone.

CallWave Vtxt (beta)

good

Bottom Line: CallWave Vtxt is a good voice-to-text message solution, particularly if you have an older mobile phone. But be prepared to do some creative interpretation to comprehend some of the transcribed messages you'll get.

CallWave Vtxt (beta)

CallWave Vtxt (beta)

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